Four Olympic Riders, Horses Suspended for Illegal Doping

The following combinations will not be competing in the Jumping individual final competition held tonight (Thursday, 21 August). They have been provisionally suspended by the FEI further to doping/medication control tests that indicated the presence of capsaicin in each horse.

Rider                                               Horse
Bernardo Alves (BRA)                      Chupa Chup
Christian Ahlmann (GER)                  Cöster
Denis Lynch (IRL)                           Latinus
Tony Andre Hansen (NOR)               Camiro

Capsaicin is classified as a doping prohibited substance given its hypersensitizing properties, and as a medication class A prohibited substance for its pain relieving properties.

As previously communicated, the FEI provisionally suspends all competitors who test positive in doping or positive medication cases at the Olympic Games in the interests of the integrity of the sport.

Christian Ahlmann was notified of his suspension yesterday evening (Wednesday, 20 August) further to receipt of the test results by the FEI from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Laboratory yesterday afternoon.

A preliminary hearing was held at 10:00am August 21st before a member of the FEI Tribunal who confirmed the suspension.

The other riders - Tony Andre Hansen, Bernardo Alves, Denis Lynch - were notified earlier today (August 21st) further to receipt of their positive test results this morning. All three of them were provisionally suspended.

Preliminary hearings were held with the respective National Federations in the following order: 14h00 – Brazil; 15h00 – Ireland; 16h00 – Norway. The hearings were held before a member of the FEI Tribunal who confirmed the suspension.

FURTHER STEPS

Confirmatory analysis of the B-samples will be carried out very shortly according to the accelerated procedure in place for the Olympic Games. Upon report of a positive B-sample result, evidence and written submissions will be requested from the rider, and a three member panel of the FEI Tribunal will be appointed. This panel should take a decision as to the applicable sanctions as early as possible further to the accelerated procedure, and providing for a hearing to be held as necessary. The competition results will be amended as indicated in the Tribunal’s final decision.

REPORT BY THE SECOND FEI VICE PRESIDENT ON DRESSAGE

A detailed report on the findings of the FEI Second Vice President concerning a meeting held in Hong Kong was produced. The conclusion of the report is that the meetings had not affected the judging. The procedure will, however, be tightened so that this will not happen again. Dressage has had an excellent competition which was judged to the high standards expected at the Olympic Games.

Source: www.fei.org